History of Nepal

The history of Nepal can broadly be divided in to three
phases, Ancient, Medieval and Modern. The history of the Nepalese
monarchy has been the integral and inseparable part of the history of
Nepal. Nevertheless, Nepal has much more than Monarchs when it comes to
realm of history. It has a Vedic past to boast about and a bright
feature to look to.

Ancient History of Nepal
The history of Nepal dates back to 11000 years. The recent excavation
in the Kathmandu valley has found out Neolithic tools. These tools were
used at the advent of Neolithic era and many of them date back to 9000
B.C. This tells about the pre-Aryan settlement in the then Nepal. These
people were of Bhutanese-Mongoloid parentage. Nepal once again gets
mentioned in the Hindu epic of Ramayana. It is said that Janakpur, in
the Tarai Nepal, has been the birthplace of Sita, the wife of Rama.
Nepal is mentioned as Kirat Pradesh in the epic Mahabharata that is said
to be composed around 1000 B.C. This place has been mentioned many a
times in the epic. It is mentioned that the concerned king supported
Kaurvas against the Pandavas in the battle. In the years around 500 B.C,
Nepal had many small kingdoms and the most powerful among them were
Shakyas of Kapilvastu. It was in the house of one of the Shakya kings
that Gautam Siddhartha was born. He got the name of Buddha when he was
enlightened. In the later era Nepal fall under the rule of the Maurya.
Ashoka finds mention in many of the rock edicts. In the post-Christ era,
the Licchhavis of Bihar ruled Nepal. There are many historical edicts
that glorify the reign of Licchhavis.

The Medieval History of Nepal
Nepal remained largely undisturbed in the medieval period. Mallas used
to rule Nepal and were largely confined to their own territories. In the
sultanate era, there were some attempts of assault on Nepal but they
were met with sporadic successes only. The relief and the climate of
Nepal have always served as its military generals. It was king
Jaisthitimalla who tried to bring Nepal under one reign in the late 14th
century. The unification was short-lived and Nepal got divided in to 3
kingdoms namely, Kathmandu, Patan and Bhadgaon. Apart from these, in the
medieval period, Nepal was largely peaceful. May be that lull was going
to bring a severe storm.

The Modern History of Nepal
The modern history of Nepal starts with the establishment of the Gorkha
kingdom by Prithvi Narayan Shah in the 18th century. He had his own
designs and wanted to unite the various warring kingdoms of Nepal. He
was largely successful in his attempts of invasion. He annexed a large
area of Bhutan and Tibet. His designs were later put to action by his
successors. Their attempts hit a roadblock at the advent of the 19th
century. The British East India Company got apprehensive of their
maneuvers and took them head on. The kingdom was soundly humiliated and
routed in the Anglo-Nepalese war of 1816. They had to agree to some of
the very insulting terms, on the negotiation table. They conceded the
entire Gadhwal and Kumaon region to the British India. In the same
decade, Jung Bahadur, one of the valiant generals of Shahs tried to
topple the regime. The queen met the efforts with the bloody counter
initiatives. This led to various massacres on both sides. The Kot
massacre is considered to be the bloodiest of them all where close to
30,000 Nepalese were chopped to death in matter of hours. This started
the century long conflict between the Shahs and Ranas, the descendants
of Jung Bahadur. In later years close to 20th century, both the warring
dynasties established matrimonial relations between them and started to
rule Nepal jointly. This pact is evident on the flag of Nepal as well.
The two triangular flags, that are the part of a single flag, represent
these two dynasties.